With their snapshots of domestic daily life, a few women in the upper echelons of the rising French bourgeoisie became part of the Impressionist movement in the 19th century. They were not as numerous as the group of men that included Degas, Renoir, Manet and Monet, but they had enough talent to stand on their own.
The Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt has grouped roughly 150 works by four women Impressionists — Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzales and Marie Bracquemond — into an exhibit that has the feel of a retrospective.
Enough other museums have gone down this path in the last 20 years that it would be an exaggeration to say that this German gallery rescued these artists from oblivion. But for the moment, there is no better place to see the works by four women whose brushes did not sit idly on the palette amid the artistic ferment of belle epoque Paris.
Looking at Morisot’s self-portrait from 1885, it is not hard to understand why critics called her “the most impressionistic of the Impressionists”. Morisot’s extremely broad, visible brushstrokes create a woman gazing self-confidently at the viewer, her face, with a small mouth that almost wants to smile, set off by a dark scarf.
The home provided much subject matter for women Impressionists, with scenes like Morisot’s “Wet Nurse and Baby”, and snapshot moments of women dressing or bathing themselves. Bracquemond painted her son, Pierre, and gardens pop up frequently in the background.
These themes provide a clear contrast to much of what is well-known among the male Impressionists, like Manet’s painting of Saint Lazare station or Renoir’s glimpses into Parisian brothels. However, the women Impressionists had close links to the men, as the exhibit makes clear. Morisot developed a friendship with Manet, and married his brother, Eugene, while Cassatt was part of the group of artists clustered around Degas.
The rehabilitation of women Impressionists, to the extent that they were ever lost, was under way long before the Schirn began hanging paintings in Frankfurt. Exhibits in Paris in 1993 and Bilbao, Spain, in 2002 showcased their work, although not as comprehensively. And Mary Cassatt, because of the popular reception of Impressionism in the US during her own lifetime, never slipped out of art history’s view.
That said, a clear achievement of the show in Frankfurt has been to pull together the works of Bracquemond, one of the least known Impressionist artists, male or female. Bracquemond was married to a graphic artist and porcelain designer, Felix Braquemond, whose domineering personality apparently drove his wife out of the creative arts prematurely.
The exhibit in Frankfurt does not attempt to group what it has collected thematically, or to draw links between the four women. Instead, works by each woman are presented in turn. The exhibition’s descriptions of key paintings are enlightening. “Women Impressionists” at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, through June 1, will then travel to the Fine Art Museum of San Francisco.
The New York Times
